Smart Meters

Smart Grids are the new monitoring systems that were developed to help reduce the use of electricity durring peak hours. Some Smart Grid systems using Smart Meters have been designed to report data back to a mainframe that reviews the data. However in the process of communicating with the network, many of these systems were designed to use WIFI or WIMAX networks.

Wireless monitoring of home utilities for a brief time each day was of concern, but when it was discovered that some Smart Meter systems would be doing an exchange of information ever few minutes it became a big concern to those already effected by electromagnetic radiation.

Considering that many people are in wireless environments and the locations during the day, they can recover each night away from wireless. However if all homes have WIFI Smart Meters, constant wireless communications, it has become a big concern now that people have confirmed the effects.

Homeowners addressed the California Public Utilities Commission in September, asking the commissioners to place an emergency moratorium on PG&E’s wireless gas and electric Smart Meters.

The CPUC told KCRA 3 that it has received more than 2,000 health-related complaints but said the health issues are not its jurisdiction and referred customers to the Federal Communications Commission and state health officials.

A Sebastopol-based group, the EMF Safety Network, studies the health impacts of electromagnetic fields and radio frequency radiation.

The group said it is collecting data that proves PG&E Smart Meters are hazardous to human health.

A number of the people who said they are getting sick said they suffer from a condition called electrical sensitivity or electromagnetic hypersensitivity, or EHS.

However, people who claim to suffer from electrical sensitivity said their symptoms are very real.

“The trouble is, a lot of times, people don’t connect the dots between their health symptoms and electrical exposure,” Sandy Mauer with the EMF Safety Network said. The WHO said there is no convincing scientific evidence that weak RF signals from wireless networks cause health problems.

SmartMeters emit about one watt, less than cell phones, which some research finds riskier because they are held to the head.

PG&E said its meters comply with federal safety standards.

“Radio frequency is all around us,” Paul Moreno from PG&E said.

“SmartMeters are a very small measure of that. They are well within what you find with ordinary household appliances and far within FCC guidelines.”

Moreno said before PG&E rolled out its SmartMeters, it commissioned independent experts to examine how SmartMeters’ RF levels stack up against other common household devices.

“The studies by the World Health Organization and other health experts have found no health effects from low-level RF such as you will find with a Smart Meter device,” Moreno said

San Rafael Assemblyman Jared Huffman has received complaints from a number of his constituents.

He has asked the California Council on Science and Technology to examine SmartMeters and whether current FCC standards are sufficient to protect public health.

“I think that’s going to be hugely helpful to take this debate to one based on sort of fear and a dismissive response to that fear, and try to inject some independent credible science,” Huffman said.

The council could release its report by the end of 2010.

“I think we have the right to a healthy life,” PG&E customer Tim Hudson said. “And we have the right to choose. And I think in both these cases, that’s being taken away from us.”

Assemblyman Huffman addressed that concern saying no matter what conclusions the Council on Science and Technology returns, he is considering looking at some kind of opt-out option for customers who do not want smart meter technology on their homes.

PG&E said it takes customer concerns very seriously. It has met with a number of communities who have raised health-related concerns, in an effort to raise awareness and educate customers.

PG&E continues to deploy some 10 million meters in its territory statewide, complying with the CPUC’s SmartMeters proposal to install the wireless meters on all customers’ residences.

In the meantime, there is no resolution for customers who said SmartMeters are ticking time bombs.

“My choice now, is I may have to leave my home,” Louise Stanphill said. “I may have to move from my house, but where do I go?”

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Smart Meters – NOT IN OUR HOMES and BACKYARDS!

by “Public Exposure” Film Co-Producer Mary Beth Brangan

She encourages listeners and viewers to join the growing nation-wide citizen / ratepayer resistance to this dangerous greenwashed corporate assault on democratic choice, public health, safety, privacy, property rights and national energy security. The industry is paying serious note to the growing pushback.

Sebastopol residents lash out against PG&E plan for ‘smart meters’

PG&E’s plan to install wireless meters on area homes has some Sebastopol residents calling for city leaders to reject the plan because they fear the meters could impact their health. Click to view water metre

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TORONTO — The Ontario government would be doing consumers a favour if it were to follow the example of Hydro Quebec and abandon its plan to install so-called smart meters in all homes in the province, says the Ontario Electricity Coalition.

MARIN California BLOCKS ‘SMART’ METERS

PGE considers SmartMeter compromise

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is considering options for customers who
fear that the utility’s new, wireless SmartMeters jeopardize their
health, although company representatives won’t say what those might be.

“We want those customers to understand that we take their concerns
seriously,” said PGE spokesman Jeff Smith. “We’re still in a
preliminary stage of review, including weighing the costs of any
options. We will make this information public in the coming months as we develop it.”

Until now, San Francisco’s PGE has responded to questions about the
meters’ possible health effects by insisting that the devices are safe
– and by continuing installation. People who say they are sensitive to
radiation from cell phones, laptop computers and other wireless
devices have demanded a moratorium on the $2.2 billion SmartMeter
program, only to be rebuffed by the company and state regulators.

The issue, however, has not gone away.

A scientific organization that advises the California Legislature on
technical issues is expected to release a preliminary report on one
aspect of the SmartMeter health debate in mid-December. The consumer
advocacy branch of the California Public Utilities Commission
recommended this week that the commission, which oversees PGE, study
whether the meters can threaten public health.

The idea that wireless devices can cause cancer and other illnesses
remains hotly disputed. But in an interview Friday in the San Jose
Mercury News, PGE Chief Executive Officer Peter Darbee said the
company is looking for a “compromise solution” for people who consider
the devices a health risk. He didn’t elaborate.

For months, PGE critics have suggested two main alternatives:
allowing customers to opt out of the SmartMeter program and keep their
old electricity and gas meters, or using SmartMeters that transmit
their data through wires. Smith declined to say Friday whether either
possibility was under consideration.

Possible risks to public

Michael Peevey, president of the utilities commission, said he had
suggested to PGE executives that they find some way to address the
concerns of people who say they suffer from “electrosensitivity.” He
did not want to say which options he had suggested.

“My personal view is that PGE ought to consider some means to address
people who sincerely believe they’re affected,” Peevey said.

In July, Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, asked the California
Council on Science and Technology to examine whether the federal
limits on radiation from wireless devices, including SmartMeters,
adequately protect the public. The council sent him an update Monday,
saying a preliminary report should be ready by mid-December, and the
final version could come in early January.

The council, which draws experts from California’s universities and
national laboratories, has been reviewing the current literature on
advanced meters and wireless health questions as well as soliciting
input from specialists in the field, according to the update.

Seeking separate study

Sandi Maurer, founder of the EMF Safety Network, said she was pleased
that the council was studying the issue. But she still wants the
utilities commission to do its own investigation.

Her group filed a formal request with the commission this year asking
for a detailed study of the intensity of the radiation emitted by
PGE’s meters and the cumulative radiation exposure PGE customers
could face. The network also wants public hearings on the possible
health effects of these devices. PGE customers have been contacting
the network, blaming the new meters for headaches, sleep disorders and
painful ringing in the ears.

Maurer said that allowing individuals to opt out of the SmartMeter
program wouldn’t be enough to protect electrosensitive people, because
other meters would still be transmitting nearby.

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Ontario Energy Board issued directive on smart grid development

Toronto, ON, Canada — (METERING.COM) — November 26, 2010 –

Ontario’s minister of energy has issued a directive to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to provide guidance to licensed distributors and transmitters in relation to activities in support of establishing and implementing a smart grid in the province. In particular guidance is requested on the preparation of plans for the development and implementation of a smart grid, and the criteria that the Board will use to evaluate smart grid plans.

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Smart meter use on hold for most of Windsor-Essex (Ontario)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010 | 1:46 PM ET CBC News

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440 million new hackable smart grid points

By the end of 2015, the potential security risks to the smart grid will reach 440 million new hackable points. Billions are being spent on smart grid cybersecurity, but it seems like every time you turn around, there is yet another vulnerability exposing how to manipulate smart meters or power-grid data. At the IEEE SmartGridComm2010 conference, Le Xie, Texas A&M University’s assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, gave examples of how attackers could hack the power grid for fun and profit.

1 Comment

Deployment of technologies are being encouraged by economics; The convenience of micro wave ovens. The misdirection of time of use meters actually saving money. This actually promotes retail energy contracts for deregulation, which at first only increased costs to consumers. The planet being bathed in wifi by google satelite. wifi available in businesses sold as a convenience for consumers with no knowledge of the effects. The extreme increased use of cell phones for local business ads and business SEO, and apps to moinitize for local SEO. This industry fills in the gaps of the smart mega city coming to a state or province near you. Every where else ? Void of population thanks to geoengineering blaming people for the bad water & soil, preparing for the now agenda 2030 and backed by the pope who endorsed it at the UN and “came in his own name” which is scriptural in that he said it, and was accepted by the world as a leader, especially by 1.2 billion Catholics with no sense to come out of the whore of Babylon. The industrial wind, terible for living near one that’s like living in a microwave oven, and cattle with no choice but to be near these. Too many negatives on wind to state here.
It’s an infringement against what little is remaining of people’s immune system, to combine with economic stress, and the coming plagues of bird and swine people need to prep for. A set up for a pandemic as we se tending in movies & prime time TV . Everyone turning into a zombie because the pineal gland is dead. The altered DNA by additional means like vaccines, flouride, chlorine, GMO radiated foods under the TPP. There is a much wider picture going on. See http://www.authorthat.wordpress.com The Blogathon Philabuster for the latest, linking economics, the environment, and one who will take you to a whole new level of the big picture.